1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to computer systems. More particularly, it is directed to image processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image processing often involves the application of various filtering operations on image data using one or more convolution operations. For example, a median filter looks at pixel values (e.g., values indicating the color and/or intensity of the pixels in an image) within a box-shaped region around each pixel and selects the median value for the resulting image (i.e., the filtered output image.) In another example, a bilateral box filter replaces the value at a pixel, (i, j, k), with a weighted sum of the pixel values in the neighborhood of the pixel. Each weight is the product of a factor dependent on the distance (in pixels) to (i, j, k) and another factor dependent on the difference in intensity between the pixels and the pixel at (i, j, k).